Langhe Nebbiolo Nebbiolo DOC 2024

A Nebbiolo that speaks quietly yet remains clear. Ripe cherry, tart rather than sweet, meets restrained floral notes of hollyhock and violet, everything precisely drawn rather than expansive.

Azienda Agricola Sottimano is located in Neive, in Piedmont. Rino Sottimano acquired the Cottà estate in the late 1960s; today Andrea, Elena and Claudia run nearly twenty hectares. The grapes for the Langhe Nebbiolo come from the higher-altitude vineyard sites and are selectively picked; fruit from the Basarin cru is blended in when the vintage calls for declassification. The estate has worked without herbicides or synthetic fertilisers for over forty years, with cover crops between the rows mown two to three times a year, and one row ploughed in alternating years in autumn.

Pure Nebbiolo, harvested exclusively by hand and sorted again on arrival at the cellar. Alcoholic fermentation proceeds spontaneously; maceration on the skins is followed by malolactic fermentation, which is never forced but begins naturally once the cellar warms up in spring. Long periods of skin contact are a hallmark of the estate's style, up to sixty days for the Nebbiolo. Ageing takes place in barriques and larger casks, with no fining or filtration.

The attack is taut, with drive and a palpable vibration. The ripe acidity carries an almost electric tension, the fruit stays transparent and bright, keeping the palate in motion.

An estate that takes its time: wild yeasts from vineyard and cellar, no filtration, no fining. Alongside the Langhe Nebbiolo, the estate produces five single-vineyard Barbarescos from Cottà, Currà, Fausoni, Pajorè and Basarin, many of the vines fifty to sixty years old.